Nashville teenager shoots family after being told to get out of bed

A Nashville teenager pulled out a gun on his grandmother, sister and nephew after resisting leaving bed to get up for school.iStock

A Nashville teenager pulled out a gun on his grandmother, sister and nephew after being urged to get out of bed and get ready for school. The unidentified 16-year-old was arrested on 1 March after he got into a heated argument with his family.

A Nashville police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said that the argument started around 7.17am when a relative attempted to wake up the teenager inside an apartment at the Berkshire Place Apartments. "There was a quarrel about getting up and getting ready for the day when [at some point] the 16-year-old ran to a closet, got a 9 mm handgun and started firing," said Mumford.

"He made threatening statements before retrieving a handgun from a closet," read a statement by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. "He fired multiple shots inside the apartment." While the teenager's sister, 12, and nephew, 6, suffered graze wounds, his 67-year-old grandmother allegedly was struck with two bullets, confirmed the police.

The teenager's nephew was his older sister's son, confirmed Mumford. According to reports, the teenager even attempted to shoot his 42-year-old mother, however she was able to duck behind a couch and avoid being hit. The teenager's two-year-old sister who was also in the house at the time of the argument was not struck, confirmed Mumford. None of the injuries sustained by the family, however, were life threatening.

"Fortunately, these were non-life-threatening injuries," said Mumford on 1 March. "These are disturbing actions as the community as a whole is addressing youth violence. It's going to take all of us working together to try and dissuade people from using this kind of violence."

The police arrested the teenager after he dropped the gun and tried to flee. The weapon was recovered and the teenager is being charged in the juvenile court on four counts of attempted homicide and one count of reckless endangerment. He previously has a misdemeanor arrest history, but no records of violent crimes.

The police said the teenager's family was not aware that there was a weapon in the apartment. The weapon is presently being investigated to track its origin. Meanwhile, six nearby schools were put on a lockdown during the gunfire, said Metro Schools spokesman Joe Bass, reported The Tennessean.